IT IS thought to be one of the best places in the universe to begin looking for signs of life – and new tantalising images published this week offer a fresh perspective on the Saturnian moon Titan.

Images of Titan taken by Cassini offer a glimpse below the surface (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Stéphane Le Mou)

The pictures have been constructed from 13 years’ worth of data from US space agency NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, offering the best insight yet into the mysterious moon’s surface.

Titan’s thick atmosphere, mainly consisting of nitrogen, with smaller amounts of methane, hydrogen and traces of other gases, is impossible to see through.

However infrared detectors enabled the probe to peer down and “see” the surface, complete with rolling dunes and seas of methane.

Cassini ended its mission last September, plunging into the gas giant to prevent the risk of crashing on Titan and potentially contaminating it with microbes from Earth - but data is still being processed.